Opinion page editor Rick Holmes and other writers blog about national politics and issues. Holmes & Co. is a Blog for Independent Minds, a place for a free-flowing discussion of policy, news and opinion. This blog is the online cousin of the Opinion
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Opinion page editor Rick Holmes and other writers blog about national politics and issues. Holmes & Co. is a Blog for Independent Minds, a place for a free-flowing discussion of policy, news and opinion. This blog is the online cousin of the Opinion section of the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham, Mass. As such, our focus starts there and spreads to include Massachusetts, the nation and the world. Since successful blogs create communities of readers and writers, we hope the \x34& Co.\x34 will also come to include you.

The MetroWest Daily News was kind enough to admit that the United States has an Establishment Clause problem. Here’s the candid admission:

“We’re pleased to report that the seasonal hyperventilating over an alleged “war on Christmas” has largely passed, with just a little grousing over officials who dare call a Christmas tree a “holiday tree,” and a minor fracas over the race of the mythical Santa Claus. We know of no local lawsuits over holiday decorations, no protests over the words store clerks use to greet shoppers.

But it there was a war on Christmas, Christmas won. Not only that, victorious Christmas is now making war on other holidays. Again this year it breached the defenses of Thanksgiving, with stores in many states starting their Black Friday sales on Thursday. Christmas store decorations have begun showing up alongside Halloween decorations in October.”

One of the interesting and growing problems in recent years has been the explosion of Christian bigotry against people of other faiths, and not only in the effort to lock up all the moslems. This year, Chanukah came in November and it was barely noticed, as Rick concedes. This year, we put up more public menorahs than ever before, had more public celebrations than ever before, and, yet, lawsuits were almost non-existent and problems were nary to be seen. I have concluded that this is because the Christian world didn’t see Chanukah as a threat to the dominance of Christmas this year. As Rick notes, Christmas seems to have a problem with what it perceives as “competition.” God forbid it should even compete with Halloween. Next year, maybe July 4th will fall as well. One of the things that maybe should be examined so closely on this Christmas Day is why Christians feel so threatened that they need to wage war on everyone, as even Rick notes. Is that the message of the season?